Inside-the-park home runs are rare. Inside-the-park grand slams? Even more so. Inside-the-park grand slams with a suspenseful slide at the end? So fun to watch, and the most rare.
The only thing better than an inside-the-park grand slam is when it ends with a slide into home
A Lehigh Valley IronPigs player managed to do just that.
@IronPigs/Twitter
That’s what Phillies prospect J.P. Crawford did on Thursday night, rounding the bases and sliding into home just in the nick of time.
Here’s another angle of that slide.
The height of the hit helped his trip around the bases, and if the exit arc of the ball were straightened out just a little that ball would have probably been over the fence and gone.
Instead, it pinged off the wall and jumped back into the outfield, forcing the center fielder to chase after it before trying for the out.
The slide at the end is less a smooth slide and more a pause-and-plop situation, but hey, whatever works for you to touch the plate before the ball touches you. It doesn’t have to be pretty, it just has to score a run.
